The present invention relates to an attachment device for automobile sunvisor vanity mirrors which, in particular, is applicable to sunvisors having a one-piece plastics material casing.
It is well known that automobile sunvisors are provided as original equipment with a mirror which is usually known as a vanity mirror. The vanity mirror may be simply superimposed on the sunvisor or it may be integrated in the sunvisor structure. The vanity mirrors integrated in the sun visor structure comprise in general essentially a boxlike shell and a cover plate. The boxlike shell of the vanity mirror is basically prismatic in shape and is open on the front surface thereof, the boxlike shell being dimensioned to contain the mirrored surface as such as well as other devices related with the functionality of the vanity mirror. The vanity mirror cover plate is attached to the boxlike shell and may be operated at will by the user so that the latter may conceal the mirrored surface or open it to view.
In the vanity mirrors based on a one-piece plastics material casing produced by blow moulding such materials, the boxlike shell of the vanity mirror is housed in a cavity formed for that purpose in the corresponding side of the sunvisor.
The vanity mirror boxlike shell is usually attached to the cavity of the sunvisor casing by adhesives. In certain cases, adhesive products applied on the corresponding facing surfaces are used. In other cases, attachment is achieved by one or more portions of flexible tape, both surfaces of which are provided with adhesive products, such that the respective surfaces of the flexible tape portions are attached to the vanity mirror boxlike shell and the opposite sides of the portions are attached to the cavity of the sunvisor casing.
In any case, the attachment of the vanity mirror boxlike shell to the sunvisor casing cavity by adhesive products, as described above, generally has certain drawbacks. On the one hand, the vibrations caused when the vehicle is running frequently cause a precarious attachment or even untimely detachment of the vanity mirror and, on the other hand, the high temperatures which the sunvisors usually reach, from sun radiation among other causes, affect the adhesive products and diminish their adhesive properties, all of which leads, similarly to what was described above, to a weak attachment of the vanity mirror boxlike shell in the sunvisor casing cavity and detachment thereof.
It may be gathered from the foregoing that the described means used for attaching the vanity mirror to the sun visor are of reduced operative reliability which, under certain conditions, may cause dangerous situations and/or accidents and, furthermore, a high financial cost making the end product expensive.